In 2005, German TV station SAT 1 organised a competition "Who shouts like McEnroe?", promising a match with McEnroe to the winner, in the framework of the Delta Tour of Champions in Essen. Markus Niermann from Hamm took part in this and won - maybe also thanks to the fact that he, just like "Mac", is a leftie and even is born on the same day (though not year). When arriving at the hall, however, it turned out that McEnroe had cancelled the promised match, preferring to play a training match against Goran Ivanisevic instead! The good thing, however, was that another Wimbledon champion, Pat Cash, and famous "tennis clown" Mansour Bahrami spontaneously offered to play a double match with Markus and another guy. Pat Cash even gave Markus one of his famous chequered headbands! (see photos). Funnily enough, the ball boys and girls perceived Markus as an important professional tennis player, and asked him for autographs :-)

Well, Markus then got the chance to briefly talk to McEnroe at least, but Mac wasn`t really in a good mood and not too communicative.